"I would prefer they do not do that," Johnson said when asked about state Republicans labeling Mary Burke, the Democratic challenger, as "Millionaire Mary."

"Far too often in the political realm we demonize success, we demagogue against it," he told the newspaper. "What we should be doing is incentivizing success."

As TPM reported Tuesday, political experts believe Republicans have been attacking Burke's wealth because the race is close, Wisconsin voters already have well-formed opinions of Walker's, and Burke remains an unknown. Those attacks have focused on her family's company, Trek Bicycling, outsourcing jobs to China and its failure to pay its "fair share" of corporate taxes, in the words of one state GOP official.

"I think there are far better areas to address," Johnson said. "From my standpoint, we ought to be talking about how do you make Wisconsin a more attractive place for risk taking, business investment, business expansion."